As is well known in the art, a tennis serve is the stroke that placed the ball in play in a game of tennis. It is often deemed the most important stroke in the game.
As is also well known in the art, a tennis serve is a complicated action that is composed of static and active phases, and inter-related motions therebetween. The object or goal of the serve phases is to hit a tennis ball at a desired position and in a timely manner, whereby the ball is directed to a desired point on the tennis court with the desired rotation or spin.
The static phase of the serve comprises positioning the body on the court prior to the service stroke. During a flat or basic serve, a player typically initially positions him/her self behind the baseline about two to three feet to the right or left of the center mark or line. The player is also positioned sideways to the net with the left foot (of a right-handed player) positioned two to three inches behind the line and their toes pointed toward the net post. The back foot is positioned parallel to the baseline and spread conformably from the front foot.
As discussed in detail herein, foot placement and movement (during the active phase, discussed below) are key aspects of an effective and consistent serve and are typically varied depending on the type of tennis serve being performed, e.g., topspin, slice, etc.
The active phase of a tennis serve includes two critical actions: the ball toss and stroke (or service swing). Similar to foot placement, the ball toss is often varied depending on the type of serve being performed. For example, when a flat or basic serve is desired, a player typically tosses the tennis ball in front, slightly to the right of the leading shoulder, and at least slightly higher than the player can reach with their racquet, whereby the ball can be hit effectively during its downward trajectory.
When a slice serve is desired, the ball is typically tossed in front, and slightly closer and further to the right of the leading shoulder than the flat serve toss, and at least slightly higher than the player can reach with their racquet. When a kick serve is desired, the ball is typically tossed in a backwards arcing motion (from front to landing behind the heel of the back foot) so that the player strikes the ball when it is crossing over the tossing arm shoulder, and, again, at least slightly higher than the player can reach with their racquet.
The stroke (or service swing) is also a key aspect of an effective tennis serve. As set forth in Applicant's Co-pending application Ser. No. 12/731,987, which is incorporated by reference herein, the single most important aspect of service mechanics is that the service or hitting arm is fully extended upward during the striking motion. Although one might think this would be a relatively simple matter to master, most novice (and quite a few intermediate) tennis players find this to be quite difficult.
One way that some players force themselves to reach for the ball at the apex of its toss trajectory is by maintain a straight service arm straight throughout the swing. This “windmill” type of serve places a considerable amount of strain on a player's shoulder and can, and often times will, cause shoulder damage.
Proper service mechanics thus comprises bending the service arm at the elbow at the initial stroke position and extending or throwing the lower half of the service arm upward from the bent arm position. With a loose wrist, this causes all of the energy emanating from a player's legs, torso and arm to be translated to the racquet, whipping the racquet upward and forward at the ball. The whipping action generates far greater racquet and, thereby, ball speeds.
Conversely, if a player performs a service stroke with a straight arm, the racquet speed is dependent upon and, hence, limited by how fast the player can rotate their service arm around their shoulder joint.
Despite a plethora of commercially available tennis training devices, there is neither a commercially available tennis training device that is designed and adapted to develop proper foot placement, nor a training system that is designed and adapted to develop proper foot placement and stroke mechanics for performing an effective tennis serve.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a tennis training device that is designed and adapted to develop proper foot placement for performing an effective tennis serve.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tennis training device that is designed and adapted to develop proper foot placement for performing an effective tennis serve and for enhancing the stability of a user's feet during a service stroke.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tennis training system to develop proper foot placement and stroke mechanics for performing an effective tennis serve.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tennis training system to develop proper foot placement, ball toss trajectory and stroke mechanics for performing an effective tennis serve.
These and further objects will be more readily apparent when considering the following disclosure.